Security systems are used to monitor homes and businesses to prevent unwanted intrusions as well as to guard against natural disasters. Critical to the operation of such security systems is their arming and disarming. Generally a security system is armed and disarmed using a keypad on a control panel residing within the structure that the system monitors. Traditional keypads can be wired into the system's control panel or can be wireless. In addition, non-traditional, virtual keypad applications providing access to the security system over the Internet, GSMs, LANs or WANs are also available. For example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/705,659, filed Feb. 13, 2007, for “Auto Connect Virtual Keypad” discloses a virtual keypad application, and is incorporated herein by reference.
A traditional keypad's screen display can show only text or can include sophisticated graphics and/or audio responses to user commands. However, at present, security system status information from a virtual remote keypad application has been a text only function.